I know you haven't heard from me for quite some time but I'm still here.

Why I'm posting:

- Com Info: What would you like me to put in the info? I know the advertising/banner link is pretty much useless because there aren't any banners. So I think I'm going to take that one out.

- The com itself: Now I don't want you to post something every day but at the moment ... well, it doesn't look really active, if you know what I mean. So, any suggestions what could been done about that?

While waiting for someone to have a question in the credit recovery lab room at the high school I work at in Indianapolis, found the following meme:

From aliki* Grab the nearest book.* Open the book to page 56.* Find the fifth sentence.* Post the text of the next seven sentences in your journal along with these instructions.* Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

"She moaned and cried and began to babble about 'the night they took the baby,' something that made no sense to Theo unless she was talking Cat's miscarriage. As he held her, patting her awkardly and trying not to think about how thin she had become, whispering reassuring nothings, he wondered if something in her own family history had triggered it. It was shocking how little he knew about the events of his mother's life before she had given birth to him. Even when the worst had passed, she was too distraught to do anything more that night, and certainly had no interest in eating. He put her to bed at last. Johnny went home full of apologies, promising that he would find 'some mellower weed' so they could try another time. But, Theo knew, as he looked down at his mother whimpering in her shallow sleep that this would be the last experiment."

Source: The War of the Flowers, by Tad Williams.

In one sense I was glad I had it for SSR, by then again, he does write awfully long sentences.

Any Blind Guardian fans around here? For those of you not familiar with cheesy German power metal, Blind Guardian's newest album, A Twist in the Myth features a song about Otherland. I was extremely relieved that it was not all about everyone's favorite Australian serial killer (Blind Guardian has a tendency to find the least sympathetic character in the book and latch onto him/her like no other) and thought it was a pretty cool song in its own right, so I recommend that y'all check it out. Seeing as Blind Guardian were the ones who got me into Otherland in the first place, I figure I kind of owe it to them to publicize this, anyway.

Otherlan Roleplay There was a previous post a month ago about this topic, and I was going to comment on it, but I figured it would make more sense to give it this post so people would see it.

I had also been itching to join an Otherland RP for a while now, too. Chatroom freeform role play is what I'm most familiar with (similar to MUDs without programmed game parts).

So, if anyone else is interested, I think I will be able to get the webmaster of the rp chat site I go to to set us up a room, and a messageboard where a person can claim their character. (And, if nessissary, I can set up a small website about it, too, snap.)

If anyone's interested, please email me at finney.d.s.d@gmail.com (yeah) and let me know... if I get a few people, I'll try to set it up, and we can always attract more players then.

(Might have to claim at least one of the twins, m'self.... >.> Although poor ole Paul might be fun to play...hmm....)

Um, hi. I was just wondering if anyone here knows of a good Otherland RPG playing anywhere. I've been scouring the Net for a while looking for something like that as the Otherland setting, both virtual and real, is one of my favorite settings from any book I've ever read. Unfortunately my quest has been quite fruitless so far, so I'd be really grateful if anyone could direct me to something like that.

FanArt I was wondering if any of you all knew of any sites that had any good FanArt for the Otherland Series?If I could draw worth a damn i would try my self... but i am horrible with almost ALL visual art forms! :/

I'll Post! hi! So I finally finished Otherland, and I desperatly want to read it again, but I'm being good and broadening my horizons. I read Tailchaser's Song and it made fall in love with my kitty all over again. Anyone else feel that way? Also, I just started reading Shadowmarch and it's starting a little slow, but so did Otherland. Someone promise me that it picks up soon and will be totally awesome :)

Community Er, I just tried to reach the mod of this community but obviously the mail address is invalid (got a mail back, saying that the mail cannot be delivered). Does anybody else know how to reach her?

Reason: The community info and in general. I think we could attract much more people if the info wouldn't look like that and the design... well, I'm not someone who can do impressive designs (in fact none at all) but maybe there's someone here who has marvellous designing skills? Who knows?

Essay: Blind Witches of New Worlds Finished my latest essay for cultural studies a few hours ago. In writing it, I used Otherland (read: Martine) and, since people might be interested by this, I am going to post it. Anyone also ineterested in cultural studies might be ineterested.

It is about visual culture, and how it affects the blind, since blind people have no access to visual culture, but still live in a highly visualised world, and are shaped (and othered) by it. Anyway, here it is.

Essay Question:

What does it mean to connect and interact with the visual? How has the shift from photographic reality to virtual reality changed the way human beings conceive of themselves and the spaces they inhabit? Refer to both ‘traditional’ photographic texts as well as digitally constructed environments in your answer.